Hey guys. Y’all have heard of this little thing that happens in Toronto every year called Anime North, right?
I would insert a Slowpoke meme here, except copyright laws are a thing, and cease-and-desist letters are much further down on the list of mail I want to receive than a Hogwarts letter.
I know, I know. This post is pretty late—it’s been roughly a month since Anime North happened, and I’m pretty sure everyone’s stopped talking about it for this year. Never mind the fact that it’s been happening for 20 years and I’m just talking about it now. No big deal, right?
Hear me out, though.
I’m still getting back in touch with my geeky side. It was pretty seriously repressed during the frightfully judgy teenage years, and it’s just now slowly poking its head out of its safe place. It’s not overly brave.
This year, I finally decided it was high time I went to Anime North. I had been hearing about it from friends for years, and secretly admiring from afar all the cosplay situations that inevitably parade around on the front grass.
But this year, I was gonna do it. I was going to go.
And I did.
We arrived and got our passes the night before. I didn’t know it, but apparently, that’s the way to go. It took all of 10 minutes, and most of that was trying to find the dang place. The next day was absolutely insane, with people waiting hours and hours to get their passes.
I had realized the night before when I was frantically throwing things into my bag that, oh hey, I had a Pokémon trainer hat from years gone by that I could wear. So there I was, half-assing it in my hat and my street clothes, exploring the floor and avidly admiring all the crazy creations that people were wearing.
Of course, this only resulted in my imagination concocting all kinds of cosplays I could make for next year, if only I were a little bit creative. Ah, well.
A geeky learning curve
What’s a new experience if you don’t learn something, right? Here’s what I learned:
- Conservative party members do not like anime conventions. I repeat, do not. Someone on their planning committee is getting fired for that gaffe.
- Fullmetal Alchemist is sadly underrepresented at Anime North, and that makes me a little bit sad, but there was lots of other awesome stuff so that’s okay.
- Next year, I need to step up my game beyond a Pokémon trainer hat and a shiny Pokéball phone charger that I second-hand acquire halfway through the show because Shane buys it from a vendor.
And, most importantly, fluffy, squishy, stuffed alpacas are the best snuggle pals. It’s life-changing.
